Lincoln Hall Project
Penelope Soskin (MS, ’93, social work; senior assistant dean, College of LAS) and her daughter, Philippa Soskin (BS ’03, biology), discuss the uniqueness of Lincoln Hall and the Quad
Philippa Soskin: One of my favorite memories of my chemistry class: I had this wonderful professor, Stan Smith, who was toward the end of his career when he taught me chemistry. An elderly gentleman at the time; he seemed very frail. And I remember once, on some kind of hazing dare, a student from one of the fraternities came running in the middle of the class—interrupting—down the aisle, with a cape flowing, dressed as Superman. Just to disrupt the whole class. And Stan Smith suddenly came alive, literally jumped off the stage at Lincoln Hall, and went chasing after this rabble-rouser, with his fists shaking, out of the room and said: “Don’t disturb my class again!” Everyone was just stunned into absolute silence. This demure, quite elderly chemistry professor could suddenly come so alive and chase this rabble-rouser out of the room. But it was a great moment in Lincoln Hall history.
Penelope Soskin: It was a moment of color in Lincoln Hall Theater.
Philippa Soskin: But also Lincoln Hall, along with the Union and probably moreso than Foellinger, is one of the most vibrant buildings on the Quad. And the Quad is so central to U of I culture. I remember walking through Lincoln Hall, coming out onto the Quad at all hours of the night and there was always something going on. There was always someone playing guitar in front of Lincoln Hall at 9:00 at night. Or there were the kids writing for the latest fundraiser in chalk right in front. It’s definitely a hub, and I look forward to it being a hub again in a few years’ time.
Penelope Soskin: But of course we’re Liberal Arts and Sciences. Whereas agriculture students would think the ACES quad is the heart and engineering students would think that engineering.
Philippa Soskin: I think that might be partially true for them, but I still think there’s nothing quite like the main Quad at the U of I for every student. Every student walks through there. There’s nothing like that first warm weather day of spring where suddenly everybody congregates and is playing Frisbee and sunbathing and building snowmen with the first snowfall. And I’ve been at multiple universities since then, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen as vibrant a place and a place as full of community, where the grass isn’t roped off and people aren’t shuttled around. It’s not a museum piece. It’s where the students live and where the students cross paths and say “hello” to each other while they rush to the next class. And I think that’s for all the students at the U of I.
Penelope Soskin: That’s true. And in fact the Quad and the north end, with the Illini Union, is where our family, long before you were born, stayed when we first came to campus. We stayed there for two weeks. And it was suggested to us to stay at the Illini Union. And coming from Great Britain, the student Union is not the sort of place you want to stay at. So I had very severe doubts. And when we arrived it was quite late in the evening. And I insisted on going in and checking out the rooms to make sure that what I thought was going to be a student bar—living over the top of a student bar, or pub as they call them in England—would be fit for my young family at that time. And then, of course, we stayed on the Quad for two weeks, with Quad Day and all the excitement that was happening at the beginning of the semester.
(Length: 2:59)